Customer Reviews

Joe Strummer becomes the Pogues Travel Agent

by
RustedChrome

An oft underrated Pogues album because it departs from Ireland for the mediterranean and South China seas... With Joe Strummer at the production helm, Joe steers the rudder for more Bangkok than Belfast so this is perhaps not the best album to start for newcomers to the Pogues legendary catalogue and sound. But the band shines on "Sunny Side of the Street", "House of Gods" and "Ghost of a Smile". But because this was such a departure in sound at the time for the band, even die hards may need to revisit this album to discover some gems to admit to liking now like "Summer in Siam".As always some of the brighter moments are when the rest of the gang get in to give Shane and break and Spider Stacy takes a great vocal on the haunting "Wake of the Medusa" and Terry Woods on "Rainbow Man" and "Six To Go", which was originally the last track on this album before this release which contains some bonus tracks particularly taken from the Curse of Love EP.

Biography

Formed: 1982 in Kings Cross, London, England

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

By demonstrating that the spirit of punk could live in traditional Irish folk music, the Pogues were one of the most radical bands of the mid-'80s. Led by Shane MacGowan, whose slurred, incomprehensible voice often disguised the sheer poetry of his songs, the Pogues were undeniably political — not only were many of their songs explicitly in favor of working-class liberalism, but the wild, careening sound of their punk-injected folk was implicitly radical. While the band was clearly radical,...